Condemnation of The Twilight Saga: New Moon makes the Vatican seem ridiculous and out of touch

The Vatican has condemned the Twilight Saga: New Moon (Photo: Getty images)

Catholics tend to ignore comic news stories about the Vatican, but they are becoming worryingly prevalent – and most of them are entirely the Church's fault. The latest one reveals that Monsignor Franco Perazzolo of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Culture has condemned The Twilight Saga: New Moon, part of a teen vampire romantic fantasy series (I kid you not) which was released yesterday.

As Nick Squires reports, Monsignor Perazzolo said the film was an "an explosive mix" of good-looking young actors involved in supernatural activities. He also reckoned that the film’s occult imagery represented a "moral void more dangerous than any deviant message".

Of course, the good Monsignor was no doubt serious and his message plainly filled with the right intentions. But really, how many teenagers who watch vampire fantasy films really turn towards the dark arts? Is his view that simplistic? The Vatican is actually self-harming when it censors childish fiction in this way. It makes the Church seem out of touch and lacking in any sense of humour, alienating far more young believers than made-up wizards or vampires ever would.

This isn't the first time the Vatican has boobed on this front, either. Remember what Pope Benedict said about Harry Potter? As Cardinal Ratzinger, he wrote that J.K. Rowling's books involved "a subtle seduction, which has deeply unnoticed and direct effects in undermining the soul of Christianity before it can really grow properly." As Damian Thompson noted later on, the Vatican did eventually recognise that the teenage wizard was not a threat to Christianity, and that the series of children's novels and films was in fact about good triumphing over evil (a feat which the Church said "requires costs and sacrifice"). But the damage had already been done.

More recently, the Church continues to fret about Halloween, that "dangerous celebration of horror and the macabre” which could encourage “pitiless sects without scruples” as the Italian bishops' newspaper, Avvenire, described it. The Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, seemed to think along the same lines, this year quoting a liturgical expert who said that "Halloween has an undercurrent of occultism and is absolutely anti-Christian."

I've written elsewhere that this attitude is ridiculous. Sadly though, I've no doubt these stories will continue to crop up, damaging the Church's reputation and turning off young Catholics even more than an ageing hippy strumming his guitar during Mass. It's about time the Church saw films like The Twlight Saga: New Moon for what they are – tacky, but very harmless, art.